


And now it's My turn

by legalizemavin



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Acceptance, Death, Fluff and Angst, Heaven, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2014-07-23
Packaged: 2018-02-10 03:10:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2008674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legalizemavin/pseuds/legalizemavin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Death comes for each of the Achievement Hunter boys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gavin

Death is scary thing, there was no linear progression of when you will begin and when you will die. No set number of days. It didn't matter if you were old or young or if you still had something to live for. Death certainly didn't care if you had five boyfriends to leave behind in anguish.

That's why when he came for Gavin no one was ready.

~~

It was only a week after the lad’s 27th birthday and he was on cloud nine. On this particular day Gavin had even gone through the trouble of putting gel in his hair, a way to force it to look like he had just been through a windstorm. The irony of making himself look good before meeting his maker would not be lost on Gavin later on. The day began as normal but when later thinking back on it there was an electric charge in the air. Gavin had headache. It began as this mild little thing, barely a pang behind the eyes. As the day wore on though it became earsplitting, the light around him only making it worse for the lad.

It was in the middle of recording minecraft that his feet began to numb. It was like they had just fallen asleep so he ignored it, choosing instead to focus on his pig on the screen. Soon Gavin’s speech became slurred and heavy, as if from a night of hard drinking. Less than five minutes later Gavin was on the floor convulsing, body undulating in weird patterns and eyes rolling into the back of his head.

Within a moment his boyfriends were around him, screaming, cradling his head and calling 911. Michael was the one to see the last bit of consciousness flicker from his eyes before the boy, their boy, fell limp in his lap.

Gavin was dead before the ambulance arrived, brain aneurysm.

The feeling of your soul leaving your body was a tingly one, like the feeling Gavin got when he ate too much pineapple in one sitting. He looked down at his body, dirty blond hair strewn about and a mask on his face. It was pale and devoid of life so Gavin elected not to look at it anymore, the morbidity of looking down at his own dead body not lost on him. It was an odd sort of calm that overtook him here, the world slowed down just enough for him to take in every detail of his death scene just like he was looking through his beloved phantom.

A warmth could be felt on his shoulder and Gavin looked up to see a dark hooded figure with what looked to be a large walking stick. The cloak it wore was all back, material draped over a body too small for such a large robe. No face could be seen from the hood, but a silky female voice enveloped him. “Gavin Free, so young to come with me. You are dearly loved here on earth, allow me to show you.” The voice came not from the hood but from all around him, as if he was being spoken to from within his very own head.

Gavin attempted to speak, finding his voice unusable, and ended up just nodded dumbly. He placed a hand on the staff when asked, glancing around nervously as the scene that automatically changed. Michael and Geoff were the two that rode in the ambulance as him, the EMTs choosing to try for as long as possible to revive such a young man. Michael’s face was read in fury as fat tears streamed down his face. Geoff just stood there stony, arm locked around his living lad’s shoulders.

Another scene change and all of his bois were in their shared house just sitting on the couch and staring at one another. They all looked to the empty spot next to Ryan on the love seat.

Nights of sobbing flashed by Gavin in a blur, he watched Geoff slowly get drunker and drunker as time went on. His stubble became the beard of a homeless man and his cancer curing laugh was gone. Michael threw things at him, screamed at the top of his lungs to snap out of it and just cry like the rest of them. He broke every plate and cup in their house one day as Ray just silently cleaned it up. Ray had taken to silence now, not wanting to say anything anymore since there was no stupid British laugh to bookend the punchline.

Jack cried all the time and held onto anyone that he could get his hands on, just silently sobbing into shoulders and cuddling for hours. It was Ryan who finally took initiative, who poured Geoff’s alcohol down the drain and enlisted them all in therapy. Within 9 months they could laugh and make videos again, but no one was hired on to round out their teams to six. And Slow Mo Guys evaporated all together.

In a year in a half everything seemed to be getting better again, Let’s Play Minecraft being discontinued forever.

A single tear made its way down Gavin’s cheek as he watched his boyfriends slowly find the will to live again. He looked up to the hooded figure as he found his voice. “Why... Why would you show me this?” It cracked, as if the year and a half had really passed without a word coming from Gavin's mouth.

“Our value is not judged on how much you loved but by how much you are loved by others, and you are loved so very dearly Gavin.” The voice made Gavin feel safe, like he was in the womb again with his mother talking to him. Flashes of fans sending in memorials now passed by, quicker this time. Dan and his mum crying together. Burnie putting up a picture of him in the main hallway of the building. A British flag flying at half mast in front of the building. The funeral.

It was plain and boring as funerals go, none of his boyfriends exactly being poets but it was something about seeing yourself be lowered into the ground that had a sort of finality to it. His journey was over.

The scene changed again, this time to a blank white room, extending indefinitely on all sides. Gavin stepped forward, feeling a rush of pure bliss take over his brain as the dark figure stepped out. Death wasn't all that scary.


	2. Jack

It was three years after Gavin when Jack was taken. The day was normal, hot and sticky with nothing out of the ordinary and it was Jack and Ray’s turn to get the sandwiches for lunch. Jersey Mike’s was only a block away, none of the hunters finding reason in ordering delivery when it was right there. “Getting my day’s sunlight.” Ray joked as the two walked down the sidewalk having already put in their orders via the telephone.

Jack laughed and continued on, pressing the button for the crosswalk and tugging on Ray’s shirtsleeve when their ‘walk’ light turned on. He swore that Ray could space out anywhere any time. The bearded man felt himself chuckle at his own thought, walking to the other side of the street without a second glance to either side.

A horn blew, loud and frantic causing Jack to glance over his shoulder in shock. A large semi-truck came barreling down the hill to his left, the driver looking panicked and laying on the horn like there was no tomorrow. A split second choice was made in his head as he shoved Ray out of the way with the force of 12 lions and made it one step forward before the truck smashed into him.

Ray’s eyes widened in disbelief as he screamed, the truck coming to a stop about 25 yards away due to an uphill in the rode. He began to yell for Jack, for him to talk to him do anything. His bearded boyfriend was messed up as he crouched beside him, anxiously calling 911 and yelling out their location. Ray made eye contact with Jack, his beautiful Jack and took ahold of one of his bloodied hands. “I love you! You saved me and I love you...” Ray’s voice broke as he put his face on Jack’s barely moving chest. “It should have been me...”

The ambulance came to collect jack, keeping him alive long enough to make it to the hospital and into a bed. But no longer than that. The dark hooded figure stood in the doorway of room 46.

When Jack left his body there was nothing tingly about it, he just went through being in the most excruciating pain of his life to nothing. Jack sat up in the bed, rubbing at his mostly transparent body and frowning. A rough male voice came to him, like sandpaper had smoked a pack of cigarettes and then tried to talk. “Jack within your own small life span you touched many others, without you there are some that would be with me not that now are not. Come with me.”

Jack felt a strange pull towards the staff and when he touched it he realized that he was still in the hospital room, only now with his boyfriends. They all stood huddled around the bed, looking at his bruised body with tears in their eyes, Ray standing in the corner away from it all just watching.

Geoff and Michael had gotten better at handling grief, Geoff finding a therapist immediately to talk to and Michael buying cheap glass things to get his anger out on when thrown. Jack smiled to himself, glad that him being gone didn't bring Geoff back to that same dark place as Gavin. Ryan found himself taking walks alone, his voice’s other half was gone. One night when drunk on sadness he wailed, wanting to be mistaken for their dead boyfriend again. Michael and Geoff were there with kisses and cuddles.

Ray worried him, he stopped eating he started sleeping on the couch and just stared ahead. Ray once again stopped talking but this time took to not expressing emotions at all. Jack’s eyes filled with tears as he watched Ray slowly waste away, the guilt of surviving too much on his delicate shoulders. It was all he could do not to scream when he saw Ray begin to take knives to his wrists and sides.

Jack saw it unfold when one day Ray put a gun to his head, crying to himself just whispering ‘it should have been me it should have been me...’ over and over again. Ryan found him like that, curled in the bathtub with gun to his own head and threw it across the bathroom. He climbed into the tub with Ray and stroked his hair until the other two came upstairs to see where they had gone. That night they all slept a little sounder, moving past a step in their grieving.

They took Ray to the hospital and he was given medication and therapy for depression. It took time but their hearts soon began to mend ever so slowly, the chunks devoted to Gavin and Jack still beating strong. Next were just small flashes, every man in the office shaved their facial hair clean for the next two months after Jack's death. They all decided that they did not deserve to wear the facial hair if he did not have it. Then Jack one by one saw the children and veterans he helped by raising money for. New prognostics, Christmases with family, a beating heart monitor, a marriage.

They all went by in the blink of an eye and soon enough Jack was watching himself be buried. “Your actions touched the lives of many Jack, you should be proud of your actions.” The voice said, just like his own grandfather would all those years ago.

Jack walked into the white with a smile on his face knowing that his presence had mattered, if only for a little while.


	3. Geoff

Geoff’s death was not sudden like Jack or Gavin's, five short years after the former’s. So the shock was not what hurt his lovers on the inside. It was the knowing. It was the waiting for him to die, knowing that every breath he took only got him closer to when he would stop breathing altogether.

Geoff may not have become a total drunkard again since Gavin’s death but he still had a healthy appetite for the drink. Well maybe not so healthy since when he went in for a routine doctors appointment and urine test they found that his liver and both kidneys were failing. His face fell and he became stone once more as the doctor spoke to him. 6 months left to live if he was lucky enough to get that.

When he walked through the door of their home that night Geoff could not find it in himself to shut it, or even to drag himself to the couch before collapsing in a ball of tears on the floor. Michael found him and neither spoke a word as they just held onto each other, bracing for the impact that was sure to come much too soon. That night all four slept on that place in the hallway, none of them having it in themselves to move Geoff to somewhere more comfortable. No comfort could be felt in a time like this.

For the first month Geoff and his boys tried to pretend like nothing was wrong, like something wasn't eating Geoff away from the inside. Even Geoff’s best friends Burnie, Gus and Matt didn't know until he passed out on the floor of the kitchen. They did not cry for him, but instead offered a hand on the shoulder and a firm nod, keeping Geoff busy with projects so he wouldn't think of his own demise quite so much.

Ray came home one day to find Geoff with a bottle of liquor in his hands, just taking gulps of it at the kitchen table. He allowed him to continue, just walking to the bedroom and falling asleep. No one had it in their hearts to pull the bottle of poison from their lover’s hands. Michael found himself unable to do ragequit anymore, the place where all of his anger had been bottled up for so long was now only overfilled with sadness. No one wanted to listen to a grown man cry while playing shitty video games.

The last month was probably one of the best, Gus having kicked the everloving shit out of Geoff for not savoring his life while it still lasted. For not making the most of him and his boyfriend’s last days together. So as he slowly felt his condition worsening Geoff went to Paris with them, laughing that cancer curing laugh when Michael bristled at how ‘Fucking dumb romantic shit like this was’. They did it all, kissed atop the Eiffel tower at midnight, walked through art museums and giggled at how fascinated artists of the renaissance were with sculpting dicks. Geoff even finally gave the remaining boys rings in a rose garden that he had rented out just for them that night.

“We should have done this ages ago when we were all still here but... I know in my soul they they know they are still apart of this too.” Geoff pulled out two other ring boxes and they all smiled, no matter how much time passed they would never stop loving one another.

The trip had to be ended early though, as Geoff’s condition took a dive off of a cliff and they had to rush back to Austin for his care. For the last two days of his life Geoff was hooked up to Machines and he refused to let any of the guys into the hospital room. “You will remember me as that night atop the Eiffel tower with the stars shining down on us, you will remember me as the stupid boss that shit himself on the couch. You will remember me as the person to bring the most amazing six men in existence together. I don’t want to be remembered dead guys, I want to be alive.” It had been 10 months since Geoff had been diagnosed and he had fought death for long enough.

When Geoff sat up he realized that his body had not come with him, instead he had left behind a husk and a flatlining heart monitor. “Geoff, the wrangler of all of these men.” The figure mused as it looked at a picture of the 6 of them together on his bedside table, its voice the same as a woman’s he had known long ago. “I am glad that you no longer fight me, a noble end.” Geoff had come to terms with that fact that he was dying and just nodded, too tired to fight anymore. For once the sagging eyelids truly showcased how the man felt beneath.

He touched the walking stick, his boys lives coming into clear view for him. Michael, Ray and Ryan stayed strong for one another through Geoff’s passing. The time that they had to prepare being used to come to terms with some things themselves. The night of his funeral they all took the remainder of the alcohol from both the office and their own house and burnt it, taking on vows of sobriety for the rest of their lives.

Roosterteeth was made an alcohol free company. Burnie, Gus, and Matt were hit hard with the loss of such a dear friend and with that Red vs. Blue came to a close. They couldn't bare to do it anymore without the dear friend that helped them start it. Achievement Hunter was also shut down, no one finding any point in continuing it without team OG. The tower of pimps that Jack had left behind slowly collected dust, no one had the heart to move it from in front of their office though so it stood as a monument to what once was.

Geoff saw as Burnie sat next to his grave his first night six feet under and shed a tear at the speech he gave to only his headstone. “Sometimes you meet someone who changes the course of your life forever. Geoff for me you are that someone. Without you Red Vs. Blue would not have gotten off of the ground and Roosterteeth would have never become our safe haven. I know that we both found the company to be our home, and I can do nothing but thank you for being a part of our family. But you... you sculpted out your own actual home in Roosterteeth didn't you? You made an actual family and now the founder of that branch of love is gone and I don't know if I will ever be able to get that sense of unity back. But all I can do is thank you for helping me put together a little company that helped a lot of people. We set up a safe haven and I hope wherever you are, be it heaven or hell or whatever the ending of Lost was that it can be your own personal home too. You deserve it.”

When the white enveloped him Geoff realized that there was no better heaven than what he already had.


	4. Michael

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just thought that the other guy's took death in with stride and I figure Michael would be just mad.

Years passed for the boys peacefully until it came time for Michael, 53 with the mouth of a sailor and the spirit of a rebellious teenage boy. “Fucking shit! Why the fuck is Halo so god damn hard!” Ray had to cover his mouth to keep himself from laughing at the redhead he called his love and had to duck out of the way to avoid a flying pillow.

“Hey I don't have the reflexes to dodge stuff anymore!” Ray complained as Michael restarted his last checkpoint. “There is a reason Ryan forbid us from playing Kung Shoe ever again.”

“Reason I did what?” The man in question asked, walking into the room with bags filled with the day’s lunch. None of them bothered to learn how to actually cook anything, that place was Geoff’s and none of them were about to try and take the place of culinary genius.

“R and R connection keeping me safe.” Ray replied, kissing his boyfriends cheek and taking his food.

“Fucking hell like I know I was bad at the first Halos but really! This is fucking ridiculous!” Michael’s face was almost as red as his hair and a vein popped from the top of his forehead, throbbing in time with his accelerating heartbeat.

“You be careful or we will put you back to work making ragequits.” Ray joked, taking the controller out of Michael’s hand and easily beating the level in one try. Michael bumped his fiance's shoulder with his own and laughed.

“Not all of us can be video game gods. Those ragequits are what made me meet your sorry ass in the first place so you better be damn grateful.” Michael shot a glare at his Xbox before taking a bite out of the overly greasy In-And-Out burger Ryan had put in his hands. He felt a touch of tightness in his chest and rubbed it. ‘Must be indigestion.’ He thought to himself, stuffing 5 fries in his mouth at once.

“Hey I have to go help the Guys down at Roosterteeth tonight with some technical problems, the new girl Millie spilled something on the sound controls and now everything is going to hell. You guys good here or want to come?” Ryan asked as the group finished their food.

“Nah I’m good.” Ray and Michael both dismissed at the same time with a wave of their hands. Ryan put a kiss on both of his fiance’s foreheads as goodby and soon was out the door once more.

“I challenge you to some oldschool Call of Duty Black ops 2.” Ray said Coyly, switching out the games and giving his fiance a shit eating grin. Michael groaned but nodded all the same, knowing his ass would be handed to him in 11 different ways with a knife before he could even get a shot off. As the years went on Ray only got better at games while Michael’s worsening eyesight made it hard, even with his now bottletop glasses.

A half of an hour later Michael was seething with anger, hands squeezing the controller so hard that cracks were starting to appear. The pain in his chest only added fuel to the fire as Ray shot him in the head from across the map. Final score: Ray 30 Michael 3. The yell started deep in his throat but quickly moved to right behind his teeth, the roar ripping through him. Michael stood up to try to calm down. He felt nauseous and lightheaded all of a sudden, rage evaporating as he had to sit down and hold his chest.

“What did I break your heart with my flawless victory!” Ray cheered, doing a little booty dance that normal 51 year olds would never dream of trying. Michael just sputtered, the world spinning around him as he slumped onto the couch. Soon Ray realized that this wasn't just some sort of ploy and jumped up, rushing to call 911 on his phone while holding Michael’s hand in his own.

“Come on not you too...” Ray begged, awaiting the ambulance. “I watched Jack and Gavin go not you too Michael not you too...” He held Michael’s hand through the hospital ride, his heart having stopped in what the EMTs quickly told him had been a heart attack. Ray called Ryan as soon as he was ripped away from Michael for testing and he was there in ten minutes. “We can't lose him too Ryan we just can’t...”

Ryan stroked the graying hair of the younger man in his arms, kissing his head as they just stood in the waiting room. Ray pulled away from Ryan’s chest as a nurse walked up to him, he recognised her as the one that was caring for Michael.

“Hi there I’m Caiti Ward and I just have some questions about Michael’s medical history...” Her voice was distinctly australian and soothed the two men as they jumped to help her out. She gave them a comforting smile and patted both of them on the shoulders, “Come along then, he has been yelling for you since he got up. Its not good for his heart all that yelling.” Ryan made eye contact with the younger man next to them and they shared a secretive smile. Nothing in the world could get that man to stop yelling.

As they walked into the Emergency Ward the first thing the couple heard was a yell. “Where the fuck are they stop touching me! Who gave you the right to just stick tubes in all willy nilly!” Ray power walked his way down to the curtain and laughed when he saw his Michael threatening the Nurse trying to hook him up with violence.

“Michael.” Ryan said warningly from behind Ray, “You let them do whatever they have to.” His voice had that edge, that Mad King edge that made Michael shut up and pout in his hospital gown.

“Ya ya I know I’m sorry..” He mumbled as he was put on a drip for the blockage. Caiti allowed them both to spend the night despite there being a one person visitor limit. Ray awoke at 12:57 AM to the sound of Michael’s heart freaking out and ran to get a doctor. Michael woke up without the same spirit this time, he was pale and tired and Ryan didn't know what to do but just hold his hand and kiss his head. “I love you Rye-bread.”

“I love you too.”

Another at 2:45 AM.

“God damnit heart you are not giving out.”

5:22 AM.

“For realsies this time heart, I’m not playing around.

6:47.

“FUCKING HEART JUST WORK GOD DAMN IT!” Michael had to be sedated after that.

10:25 AM.

Michael sat up groaning, something felt off. He looked round to see the heart machine freaking out again and rolled his eyes. He looked down at himself just to check for damages but was stunned to see that his body was now slightly translucent. Could he even say ‘his body’ because he was very clearly sitting in the physical entity that must have been his actual vessel.

“Fucking shit...” He murmured to himself, trying to fit himself back into his body.

“Michael, I knew that this would not come to pass without a fight but I didn't expect this.” The hooded figure stood in the corner of the room once again, hand reached outward to take Michael’s. “I think we both know it is time.” The voice was smooth and slow with a slight New Jersey accent.

Michael just held up his middle finger, body slamming himself back down into his body. The pain came back with a whoosh as he breathed inwards loudly and looked frantically around the room.Ray and Ryan stood in the very farthest edge of the room so the doctors could do their thing. Ryan had silent tears running down his face while Ray was just a puddle of snot and sobs.

Michael felt a strange sensation in his belly button before he found himself being ripped from his body by the cloth covered hand. “Michael it’s time you don't want to hurt them further do you?” The voice asked. Michael just whimpered, throwing a half assed attempt of a punch at the cloaked figure but finding it just went right through.

“I’m not going to fucking die. I have two lovely fiances that need me and a haircut appointment at noon!” He screamed the words, fighting the force that kept him away from his body to no avail. “I know I joked about being old but this isn't old! I need to get REALLY old with them, all of them. I want my bed to be filled with 6 wrinkly old fucking men with working brains! I want to beat Gavin at chess at an old folks home, race Ray in our wheelchairs down a hallway. I need Geoff to call me his ‘little fucker’ again.” Michael began to claw at the air, tears streaming down his face. “I have 5 very important men to love with all my heart and I can't do that if it doesn't work can I!”

“Just because you stopped living does not mean that your love does not carry on Michael. You don't need a physical heart to use your metaphorical one.” All Michael could think was what a douche baggy answer that was. The cloaked figure set the lad down and he did no run back to his body, the doctors had all cleared the room and he was pronounced dead. His fiances had 15 minutes to say their goodbyes.

“I don't want to hear this!” Michael screamed as Ryan began to talk. He covered both of his ears with his hands and whimpered. “This is all your fault! If it wasn't for you they would all be with me! We would adopt some cute little shitty kid and I would love her with all my heart. Jack and I would walk her to school and I would yell at boys that even came near her... I would yell at Gavin for giving her ice cream right before bed... I just... My boys...” Michael kept his eyes shut tight as the cloaked figure took them from place to place. Michael didn't want to know how it all ended though he just wanted to start again. 6 men in a tiny room with unresolved sexual tension and a love of videogames.

He stood himself up once they got to the white room, realizing how pathetic he must have looked. Michael walked into the room, wanting nothing more than for it to not be endless. Because in a world with ends maybe eventually he could find a happy one.


	5. Ryan

The next few years were hard, Ryan was in his sixties approaching his seventies and was no longer the suave quick witted man he was before. “Hey babe do you know where you put the remote?” Ray asked one day, fishing around in the couch for it.

Ryan thought for a moment, head tilted as he thought about it. “No I dont think so..” Ray just nodded, people lost TV remotes all the time.

“Ray I told you I just can't find my shoes.”

“Under the bed Rye-bread.”

“Hey Ray I need to fill this form out what's our area code again.”

Ray should have found it odd that all of a sudden Ryan was forgetting things left and right but he didnt. He just assumed it was just Ryan’s 73rd birthday that was looming above their heads. But it was after a routine doctor’s visit that Ray was called to the side by their nurse that he realized that something was run. “Ryan seems to be forgetting things very easily these days...” He commented, casting a sidelong glance at the Puerto Rican man.

“Yea Ryan isn't what he used to be.” Ray said, looking down at nurse JJ with trepidation. “What are you getting at?”

JJ looked down at his clipboard before speaking slowly. “We think that Ryan may have some form of Alzheimer's and we think that some testing needs to be done to see if that is really true or not.” Ray just nodded numbly, scheduling an appointment for that weekend and taking Ryan home with him. They had the, now full fledged employe, Millie drive them whenever they needed to go somewhere since Ray couldn't drive and Ryan no longer felt up to it.

“They treat me like a damn child in there I swear Ray I just about got off of my murder break.” Ray smiled at his fiance, kissing a wrinkled cheek swiftly and cuddling his side. Ray would drop the news on him when they got back home and were watching one of those sci-fi movies Ryan loved so much.

When Millie got to their house Ray stood up and walked around to the other side of the car to link arms with his fiance. Ryan now needed a cane to walk but he still strutted like a debonair millionaire. He had chosen a black cane with a silver bauble on the end that made Ryan feel like a villain and he used his evil laugh liberally when walking with it. Ray smiled at how cute Ryan still was after all of these years, the man’s white hair staying as thick as ever in that perfect wave.

They popped in a movie and settled down together on the couch when Ray decided it was as good of time as ever to bring up what nurse JJ had said. “This weekend you have another appointment.”

Ryan shot him an odd look, pausing the Tv to look at him fully. One of those perfect eyebrows were raised in question. “Well whatever for love, we just got everything done with. Even that awful prostate exam, I don't understand why they don't just let you do it. Lord knows you have spent more time with fingers up a number of asses than any doctor ever-” he was cut short by Ray.

“This is serious they want to do some testing for Alzheimer's.” Ray just sort of blurted it all out, face turning bright red with nerves as he waited for what his fiance would say.

“Alzheimer's? But I’m the sharpest of the bunch I always have been... But I can't deny a doctor’s request for my own silly wants. Thats how a person gets killed. I will prove to you that I am just as sharp as the day we met darling don't you worry.” Ray snuggled himself into Ryan’s arms, not so sure if that promise held any true merit.

“Now Mr. Heywood what street did you grow up on?” 

“Now I fail to see why or how that’s relevant to this test.”

“What is the name of the man sitting there in the corner.”

“Why that is Ray Narveres Jr, my fiance and the most important person in my life right now.”

“Yes I see... Now do you recall what my name was? I told you at the beginning of this appointment.”

“...”

Ryan was left to himself as Ray and the doctor went and spoke to one another. “I believe he is in stage three or four of alzheimer's, have you noticed a decline in his understanding of the world.”

Ray was beside himself as he looked through the small hole in the door at his lover, just sitting there in a chair. “I mean I just thought it was his age I mean he is 71 you know... Yes I guess so... He has trouble finding the right words and has to stop talking for a moment to compose himself.” The doctor nodded and wrote out a perscription for Ryan.

“The pills will help with the emotional effects of Alzheimer's and for a while he will be alright to keep living with you. But you are 62 sir I would suggest that once he reaches stage 5 you find a nice place for him to be cared for.”

The ride home this time was silent, Ryan had his arms crossed as he looked out the window and Ray just held onto the pill bottle. He hadn't taken the news of his ailment and had threatened to just get up and leave the car if Ray tried to talk about it. When they got home Ryan just silently took a pill and went to bed, Ray being the big spoon for once.

“Come on Ryan lets get you dressed, arms up, there we go do you want cereal for breakfast?”

“Ray where is my ring?”

“I have it hun, we took them off to wash dishes.”  
~  
“Here we go Ryan just let me get your shoes all tied for you.”

“Thank you Ray.”  
~  
“Darling do you have any idea of what channel my Sci-fi network is?”  
~  
“We need to see that Millie girl Ray. She is such a sweetheart.”

“She drove us to the grocery store yesterday hun.”  
~  
“I love you.”

“I love you.”  
~  
No matter what happened Ray was by Ryan’s side whether it be to help him get dressed or remind him which post box was theirs. They did everything together and Ray just smiled through the whole thing, he was content to just have his Ryan.

~  
“Yes R and R connection~” Ray giggled after the two of them said the same thing at the same time.

“What’s the R and R connection love? Is it another video game you played without me?”  
~  
“Why is our bed two kings pushed together if it is just the two of us? Seems like a waste of space to me.”  
~  
“I love you.”

“I love you.”  
~  
“Who proposed Ray, you or me?  
~  
“What the hell are you doing in my house? Who are you?”  
~  
Deciding to put Ryan in a physicality was the hardest choice Ray had ever made but he just couldn't care for Ryan like he had to. Ryan was now wheelchair bound and needed assistance bathing, eating and using the restroom. Ray just couldn't do it. But every day he came to Ryan’s room with a rose, friday’s with a dozen and would spend all 4 and a half hours of visiting time with his fiance.

“My fiance is the most handsome man in the world.” Ryan one day mused, looking out the bay window of his room. Ray perked up, looking at Ryan with a hopeful gleam in his eye. “He comes and brings me a flower every day how sweet is that.

“Very sweet.” Ray answered. The nurses asked him to go along with what Ryan was saying even if it physically hurt him on the inside to do so. “He loves you very much doesn't he?”

“Yes, I have more than one fiance. There are 5 men who promised themselves to me, the others don't visit so much but I love them all the same. Do you want to hear how we met?” Ray heard how they met every day, the tale being slightly different each time but it never got old. Who could tire of one of the loves of their lives going on and on about how much they loved you? “Well we all worked at the company of Roosterteeth. I was just a lowly tech but they were in Achievement Hunter, like superstars within the ranks... and I was asked to be on an episode.” Ryan could go on and on for hours about cows in holes and vibrating machines in desks and Ray just let him talk. It didn't matter if he forgot the details as long as he was happy and in love.

~  
“I love you.”

“...”  
~  
Ryan got up for the first time in months, blinking for a moment as things began to clear up in his mind. Ray’s visits and roses, telling that story over and over again. He felt a presence in the room and looked to his right, that hooded figure standing there in wait. “For you we will take a walk down Memory lane.” The voice of the helpful nurse the night of Michael’s death washed over his mind.

Ryan took hold of the staff and watched. Every day that Ryan received only one rose each of his other loves got one put atop their grave. All buried in a row in the exact order he remembered them sleeping on the bed at night. Farther back was he and Michael Kissing one another on the porch one lazy sunday morning before Ray got up. The night Geoff proposed. Jack and him using a recording device to test to see if their voices really did sound similar. He and Gavin having their own picnic beneath the stars.

Soon the journey just stopped at landmarks along the 6 way relationship. Ryan’s stuttering words the first time he met the 5 most attractive people on earth. The earth shattering moment Michael and Gavin made their relationship public. Then Michael Gavin and Geoff. It was Ryan who took action, first pulling Gavin into a kiss and then Jack. “We can all just quit being cock teases and date each other like adults. The first time they all spent the night together. Their first time making love. Michael was the first one to say I love You but then it just became an avalanche of feeling. Moving into the same house as them.

It was like a dream, watching everything he had forgotten play before his eyes again. “You may keep these memories forever Ryan.” The voice said and nothing could ever be better news.


	6. Ray

Ray was 93 when the hooded figure came to get him, living in an old folks home and sitting in his wheelchair all day long. No one came to visit him anymore, he was the last surviving member of the original Roosterteeth staff. He had admitted himself at 86 once he saw that going up and down the stairs in the house that had been theirs just wouldn't happen. He still owned the house, having put it in his will to give to Burnie’s youngest son Teddy.

There was one nurse that came in to talk to him every day, Griffen she told him her name was. Ray enjoyed her presence, it was like having Geoff back again. She would come in with him and talk for the twenty minutes a day since Ray couldn't stand going into the main room and hang out with the other old people. He had his Xbox and that was all that mattered, racking up an impressive 655,000 gamerscore in his free time.

“So today is Gavin’s day isn't it.” Griffin said as she walked into the room, opening the curtain so Ray could get some vitamin D. ‘Getting my day’s sunlight’ He could hear a younger version of himself joke. But instead of saying anything Ray just nodded, following behind Griffin to the home’s van. Every year on each of their birthday’s, death anniversaries, their actual anniversary, and valentine's day Ray would have someone drive him to the graveyard so he could spend some time with his boys. Griffin waited in the car, knowing Ray preferred to do this by himself.

“Hello Gavin Happy birthday you stupid...” Ray trailed off as he moved himself from the wheelchair to sit on the ground before the graves. He tossed a large bouquet of roses on Gavin’s and smaller flowers onto everyone else since it wasn't their day. “You left when we were still all in our prime didn't you?” Ray mused, touching his thinning head of hair with one hand. “Back when we were all young and beautiful... You know they say that the nose keeps getting bigger as you age, yours would probably be bigger than my head by now.” 

He took in a deep breath, lings hurting from the minimal amount of exertion it took to get to their family plait. “Jack, my wonderful, wonderful Jack. You saved my life, I should be where you are with you crying like an idiot 12 times a year on a grave. God I love you... I love you all. I don't think you guys will see me again here. I know the doctors try to keep their voices down but I can hear them. I haven't had much long for this world for a very long time, I haven't had reason to be for even longer.” Ray shot a longing gaze over at Ryan’s grave. “But you guys are what fuel me every day to keep on living, I guess that's why this cruel world made me live so long. I have enough years for all of us. I mean...YOLO right?” He said weakly, running a hand over Geoff’s lettering.

“Ryan I realized in caring for you that there is nothing I wouldn't do for any of my boys, no matter what for however long it took. I would sell my soul for you even if I had to do everything for you every day and remind you that I love you. I would keep Michael’s heart pumping twenty four hours a day if I could just keep you. Geoff when I heard that you couldn't just take my kidneys and liver it was one of the worst days of my life, I would let Gavin and Michael do the surgery to take them if that meant that you would call me a dick head again. Jack I’m ready now, I’m ready to take anything for you. I’ll wrap my arms around you tight and let a hundred tanks run over me a hundred times if that was what it took. Gavin... fucking Gavin... I know we had you with us for the least amount of time but I still love you like our first night together. Every time I think of you I fall in love with you again. Just... give me a chance...” 

Ray didn't cry as he spoke to them, as he saw a dark hooded figure across the way waiting for him to finish. He had cried so much over his boys and now it was like a dream come true, he would be joining them.

It slowly glided up to him, stopping right beside Ray and looking at the graves as well. “Ray, so it seems your time has come. I apologize for being so late.” There was a tense heavy silence as Ray relished in that voice, It was English but it wasn't, it had two tones of the same timbre but it didn't, it sounded drunk but it wasn't. “You are survived by no family members and no friends, every co-worker has passed away before you.” There was almost a note of remorse in the voice. “There is no love to show you in the future and nothing in the past that you don't remember.”

Ray gave a dry laugh, “I guess that means I lived a pretty shitty life then doesn't it?”

“No, you lived a full life.”

Ray found it surprisingly easy to rise to his feet and walk over to death, the years seemingly stripping away with every step. There were no flashes of what came to be, or what once was, just a large white expanse with a small black pinprick at the end. “I think you know where to go from here.” The voice said and Ray ran. He ran from that damn home and Griffin’s car, he ran from Ryan’s funeral and being forgotten. He ran away from the place where Michael Jones’s lungs finally stopped wailing, from where Geoff found his first drink of alcohol. Gone were broken brakes or brain problems and here he was...

Ray found himself stood in front of the Roosterteeth Office where he met the boys, the parking lot empty and the place seemingly abandoned. He walked through the front doors noticing he was 24 again, like the day Ryan got them all together. The front door opened without a hitch, creaking as he looked into the empty expanse that was the office. Dusty and deserted were the only two words one could use to describe it. But then a birdlike squawk could be heard and Ray knew it he just knew.

He sprinted the few feet to the door where his life began and he threw it open to see it in pristine condition. Complete with five guys at desks being bad at videogames all young as the day they met. It was Gavin who noticed him first, tripping over his limbs in an attempt to get to him faster. “You sausage do you know how long I have been waiting for you? 65 bloody years you doughnut!” Gavin just held Ray in his arms and he hugged back, knowing the exact curve of Gavin’s spine and the smell of his hair gel and the texture of his hair. Ray could never forget his Gavin.

Next it was Jack, who just sort of barreled into the hug and smothered Ray in his chest. The last time they had seen each other one of them had been beaten to a pulp by a truck. Ray couldn't help but look over Jack’s body, checking for even a single scratch he had to worry about on the man. Geoff was next, a glass of whiskey in his hand as he gave Ray a tight squeeze around the middle. He laughed to himself and shook his head, some people never change. Michael was completely silent and just held Ray close, his ear listening to the angry thump of the heart that wouldn't go out.

Ryan was last, Ray looked at him with fear in his eyes. Would the mad king remember his boy. Ray didn't have to wait very long as all Ryan could say was “I love you too.” Over and over again he said it as his hands stroked Ray’s now jet black thick hair. He detached himself to look at his boys for a moment, for the first time in 65 years. A smile came over his face when he noticed that Gavin and Jack had gotten their rings, Geoff had put it in his will that he wanted to be buried with them just incase he saw the two of them.

“This isn't even the best part!” Gavin cheered excitedly, tugging on Ray’s hand out the door. There out in the parking lot stood every member of Roosterteeth, as young as the rest of his boys were. They all just stood there, smiling for a moment as they looked at one another before Burnie walked up to him.

“We were waiting for you.” He said, wrapping an arm around Ray’s shoulder and motioning to everyone. “Now our little family can be whole again.”

He took a moment to take in all of the faces before him, the faces that he now had eternity with. This place and these people may not have been the ideal family. But as Ray walked back into the office, his fiance’s right along with him, he wouldn't have it any other way.


End file.
